1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to trays for the shipping and display of soda bottles, particularly two-liter bottles, wherein the trays can be configured in any of three different ways. Firstly, during the shipping of the bottles and trays, the tops of bottles from downwardly vertically adjacent trays engage female elements within the bottom surfaces of the trays. Secondly, during the display of the bottles at the retail establishment, the trays are separated by vertical rod elements thereby forming a stable, aesthetically pleasing display rack and allowing the customer access to any of several trays disposed vertically with respect to each other. Thirdly, the empty trays are nestably stackable with each other in a compact configuration.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, it is well known to use two-liter polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles for the sale of soft drinks and other beverages. These PET bottles offer the advantages of being light-weight, transparent, and inexpensive. Additionally, the ability of these PET bottles to bear high compressive loads along their longitudinal axis has allowed prior art shipping trays to be designed which direct compressive loads through the bottles during shipping thereby replacing non-recyclable full-height cardboard shipping cartons. Examples of such prior art shipping trays are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,899,874, 4,978,002 and 5,060,819 (a similar tray for cans is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,748). However, these prior art shipping trays do not provide for a convenient, or for that matter, aesthetic, display at the retail establishment. That is, the display at the retail establishment would frequently be merely the shipping configuration--alternating layers of bottles and trays with the bottles supporting the trays immediately thereabove. This meant that a customer could select bottles only from the top tray, that top trays would have to be removed from the display as soon as they were empty, and that careless removal of the bottles could cause imbalance in the display, possibly causing the collapse of the display and other-than-axial forces to be applied to the lower bottles thereby rupturing the bottles.
Moreover, the frequent removal of successive empty trays presents an aesthetic problem in that the empty trays are frequently stacked or even strewn in the vicinity of the display causing not only unsightliness but also a safety hazard. Additionally, the cluttered topography of these trays contributes to the unsightliness both of the display and of the collection of empty trays stacked or strewn nearby.